Close Reading in Action in the Primary Classroom

Is close reading making you pull out your hair? Don’t think your primary kiddos can handle it? 

I’ve created a 5-part  Close Reading Series to help you get more comfortable with it in your classroom.  Once you get the hang of it, you’ll see how powerful and beneficial it is for your students.

Part 1- What is Close Reading and How to Get Started

Part 2- Close Reading in Action in a Primary Classroom
 

Part 3- Types of Text Dependent Questions

Part 4- After Reading: Extension Activities to tie it all in
 

Part 5- Your Close Reading Questions Answered

During Part 1, I showed you how to implement and get started with close reading in your primary classroom and what to do during the first read.  This week, I want to show you what close reading looks like in our room during the next few reads.  We’ve been using a few powerful strategies that allow my second graders to really take ownership of what they’re reading.  I want them to dig deep and be engaged in what they’re doing.

Main Ideas

After I’ve read them the story one time, they go back and underline or highlight the main ideas or parts they think are important.  This is especially important for non-fiction texts.  If you’re reading literature, have your students highlight important parts of the story.  If you’re doing this for the first time, model, model, model.  I start this in my guided reading groups so I can really monitor my students.  I do a think aloud as I highlight important parts of the text.  Then, I have my students do the same thing, on their own.  If you are scaffolding, do the first few paragraphs together.  If you plan to do partner highlighting next, make sure each partner has a different color highlighter. 

During our third read, students read the story on their own and take notes about what they read.  If this is your first time annotating, or reading with a pencil,  model this for them several times before letting them do this on their own.  I kinda go overboard but literally write down everything I’m thinking.  As I’m modeling this, I’m saying what I’m think aloud so they really get the point.  I model how to draw a quick sketch of a word or phrase because it helps me remember the story better.   I like to tell them, “The more writing on your paper, the better because it lets me see inside your brain.”  Although I don’t want to see inside their brain because I’m a wimp and can’t stand that kind of stuff, the kids think it’s hilarious and then the annotate a lot, which makes me happy.

I don’t want them to annotate just to do it.  I want them to share their annotations and make sense of it.  Depending on time and my purpose, I have my students share a few of their annotations with their shoulder-partner at their table group.  They read the part of the text they annotated and then add their annotation.
Using the example from the picture above:
“The story said, Hurit went to see Strong Wind and he pulled at her hair. made me think, ‘Ouch!’ because that seemed like it hurt.”  There’s a lot of meaningful conversation and collaboration happening here.  This often leads to the partner chiming in about what he or she said during that same part.

Make sure you’re catching my Instagram feed to see more close reading in action tips that you can use in your primary class!

Want more Guided Reading ideas, check out my teacher friends!